In certain types of building construction, e.g., retrofits, cinder block, or the like, it may not be possible or practicable to run electrical cabling (such as high voltage power lines and low voltage data lines) through the building's walls. In such cases, modular raceway or conduit assemblies are often used to house and route cabling along a wall or other surface. A typical raceway assembly includes a linear or elongate housing having at least one interior passageway that accommodates a length of electrical cabling. (Such a passageway is referred to herein as a “wireway.”) The housing is attached to a wall, and then the cabling is disposed in the interior of the housing. To cover a given span, multiple segments of housing are deployed in an end-on-end manner.
Besides delivering electricity from a source to an endpoint, outlet or receptacle devices may be deployed at various points along the length of the raceway for accessing the cables in the raceway. For example, data ports may be provided for accessing a data line, and electrical receptacles (connected to a high voltage line in the raceway) may be provided as a power source for electrical devices. For installing an outlet or receptacle, an outlet box is surface mounted to a wall between adjacent segments of conduit or raceway. The receptacle is then electrically connected to the endpoints of the electrical lines in the raceway, and mechanically connected to the outlet box, including possible provision of a finishing cover plate. (The receptacle may also be electrically connected to the outlet box, such as a ground connection.) Alternatively, instead of using separate outlet boxes, certain raceway configurations allow receptacle or outlet devices to be attached directly to the front wall or cover of the raceway. Although in both cases such configurations are functional in terms of allowing general user access to a raceway's interior electrical cabling, a series of front-facing receptacles is not aesthetically pleasing in most settings. Additionally, since the receptacles themselves are exposed in a forward facing manner, there is a greater chance of environmental contamination, such as from splashing liquids.